From SGD, you can access YeastRGB through any Protein page (example: Atp12p). The YeastRGB link is located in the Resources section, under Localization. Alternatively, you can visit the YeastRGB website and search for your favorite genes or keywords.

The 30th Fungal Genetics Conference takes place next year March 12-17, 2019 at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA. The biennial Fungal Genetics Conference is a place where scientists working on any aspect of fungal genetics–such as gene regulation, evolutionary biology, cell development, fungal-host interactions and more–can come together in a common platform to share ideas and collaborate.

The schedule of events is now available. The conference features multiple workshops, Plenary Sessions with central themes on various aspects of fungal biology, and dozens of diverse Concurrent Sessions where you can attend talks on topics most relevant to your research. The 2019 Perkins/Metzenberg Lecture, which provides perspectives given by a leader in the field of fungal genetics, will be presented by John Taylor from the University of California, Berkeley.

Fungal Pathogen Genomics is an exciting week-long course that provides experimental biologists working on fungal organisms with hands-on experience in genomic-scale data analysis. Through a collaborative teaching effort between the web-based fungal data mining resources FungiDB, EnsemblFungi, PomBase, SGD/CGD, MycoCosm, and JGI, students will learn how to utilize the unique tools provided by each database, develop testable hypotheses, and analyze various ‘omics’ datasets across multiple databases.

Daily activities in Fungal Pathogen Genomics will include both individual and group exercises, lectures on the bioinformatics resources provided by various databases, and presentations by distinguished guest speakers. Examples of what you will learn at Fungal Pathogen Genomics include:

1,011. That’s the number of different Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strains that were whole-genome sequenced and phenotyped by a team of researchers jointly led by Joseph Schacherer and Gianni Liti, published this week in Nature (Peter et al., 2018; data at: http://bit.ly/1011genomes-DataAtSGD).

Scrupulously gathering isolates of S. cerevisiae from as many diverse geographical locations and ecological niches as possible, the authors and their collaborators plucked yeast cells not only from the familiar wine, beer and bread sources, but also from rotting bananas, sea water, human blood, sewage, termite mounds, and more. The authors then surveyed the evolutionary relationships among the strains to describe the worldwide population distribution of this species and deduce its historical spread.

They found that the greatest amount of genome sequence diversity existed among the S. cerevisiae strains collected from Taiwan, mainland China, and other regions of East Asia. This means that in all likelihood the geographic origin of S. cerevisiae lies somewhere in East Asia. According to the authors, our budding yeast friend began spreading around the globe about 15,000 years ago, undergoing several independent domestication events during its worldwide journey. For example, it turns out that wine yeast and sake yeast were domesticated from different ancestors, thousands of years apart from each other. Whereas genomic markers of domestication appeared about 4,000 years ago in sake yeast, such markers appeared in wine yeast only 1,500 years ago.

Additionally — and similar to the situation where human interspecific hybridization with Neanderthals occurred only after humans migrated out of Africa — it appears that S. cerevisiae has inter-bred very frequently with other Saccharomyces species, especially S. paradoxus, but that most of these interspecific hybridization events occurred after the out-of-China dispersal.

There are many more gems to be found among the treasure trove of information in this paper. Some notable conclusions from the authors include: diploids are the most fit ploidy; copy number variation (CNV) is the most prevalent type of variation; most single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are very rare alleles in the population; extensive loss of heterozygosity is observed among many strains. There are also phenotype results (fitness values) for 971 strains across 36 different growth conditions.

As is often the case for yeast, the ability to sequence and analyze whole genomes at very deep coverage has yielded broad insights on eukaryotic genome evolution. The team’s work highlights this by presenting a comprehensive view of genome evolution on many different levels (e.g., differences in ploidy, aneuploidy, genetic variants, hybridization, and introgressions) that is difficult to obtain at the same scale and accuracy for other eukaryotic organisms.

SGD is happy to announce that in conjunction with the authors and publishers, we are hosting the datasets from the paper at this SGD download site. These datasets include: the actual genome sequences of the 1,011 isolates; the list of 4,940 common “core” ORFs plus 2,856 ORFs that are variable within the population (together these make up the “pangenome”); copy number variation (CNV) data; phenotyping data for 36 conditions; SNPs and indels relative to the S288C genome; and much more. We hope that the easy availability of these large datasets will be useful to many yeast (and non-yeast) researchers, and as the authors say, will help to “guide future population genomics and genotype–phenotype studies in this classic model system.”

It was with great sadness that we learned that André Goffeau, renowned yeast researcher and Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium, passed away on April 2, 2018.

Prof. Goffeau worked on yeast transporter genes and multidrug resistance for much of his scientific career, and made many contributions to this field. But he will forever be remembered for his visionary idea to sequence the entire genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ultimately leading to the coordination of a world-wide collaborative effort during the late 1980s and early 1990s by researchers from 19 countries working in 94 laboratories. The sequencing project, which represented the first completely sequenced eukaryotic genome, culminated in the landmark publication “Life with 6000 Genes” (Goffeau et al. 1996). But of course this was only the beginning of a cascading myriad of discoveries, methods, resources and careers built upon the existence of the yeast genome sequence.

The collaborative nature of the yeast community’s effort was nicely summed up in the 1996 Goffeau et al. paper: “Whether they worked in large centers or small laboratories, most of the 600 or so scientists involved in sequencing the yeast genome share the feeling that the worldwide ties created by this venture are of inestimable value to the future of yeast research” and indeed this has proved true. Prof. Goffeau was recognized with many awards and honors over his career, including the 2002 Beadle Medal of the Genetics Society of America for his work in having “initiated and successfully led the yeast genome sequencing project”. After the completion of the S. cerevisiae genome he continued to sequence whole genomes of other microbes and also worked on novel anti-cancer agents. Prof. Goffeau was a highly praised mentor and published hundreds of scientific papers of which many resulted from large collaborations; he also served on journal editorial boards, organized meetings, and performed many other valuable services to the scientific community over his career. He was an active and treasured part of the yeast community and we will miss him greatly.

For almost 50 years, the legendary Yeast Genetics and Genomics course has been taught each summer at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

For almost 50 years, the legendary Yeast Genetics & Genomics course has been taught each summer at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. (OK, the name didn’t include “Genomics” in the beginning…). The list of people who have taken the course reads like a Who’s Who of yeast research, including Nobel laureates and many of today’s leading scientists. The application deadline is April 15th, so don’t miss your chance! Find all the details and application form here. This year’s instructors – Grant Brown, Greg Lang, and Elçin Ünal – have designed a course (July 24 – August 13) that provides a comprehensive education in all things yeast, from classical genetics through up-to-the-minute genomics. Students will perform and interpret experiments, learning about things like:

Finding and Analyzing Yeast Information Using SGD

Isolation and Characterization of Mutants

Yeast Transformation, Gene Replacement by PCR, and Construction and Analysis of Gene Fusions

There’s fierce competition between students at CSHL courses in the Plate Race, a relay in which teams carry stacks of 40 Petri dishes (used, of course).

Scientists who aren’t part of large, well-known yeast labs are especially encouraged to apply – for example, professors and instructors who want to incorporate yeast into their undergraduate genetics classrooms; scientists who want to transition from mathematical, computational, or engineering disciplines into bench science; and researchers from small labs or institutions where it would otherwise be difficult to learn the fundamentals of yeast genetics and genomics. Significant stipends (in the 30-50% range of total fees) are available to individuals expressing a need for financial support and who are selected into the course.

Besides its scientific content, the fun and camaraderie at the course is also legendary. In between all the hard work there are late-night chats at the bar and swimming at the beach. There’s a fierce competition between students at the various CSHL courses in the Plate Race, which is a relay in which teams have to carry stacks of 40 Petri dishes (used, of course). There’s also a sailboat trip, a microscopy contest, and a mysterious “Dr. Evil” lab!

We want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family, friends and lab mates the best during the upcoming holidays.

Happy Holidays from SGD!

Stanford University will be closed for two weeks from December 23rd through January 7th. Regular operations will resume on Monday, January 8, 2018.

Although SGD staff members will be taking time off, please rest assured that the website will remain up and running throughout the winter break, and we will attempt to keep connected via email should you have any questions.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for all good things in the coming New Year!

The deadline for nominations is Tuesday, August 1, 2017. Nominations should include: name, affiliation, email address, and a one or two sentence overview of why you are proposing the individual. Please send nominations to mahoney@genetics-gsa.org.

With the construction of a global genetic interaction network in S. cerevisiae, it’s not hard to see why yeast genetic interactions remain a treasure trove for biological discovery. When combined with tools for visualization and analysis, these data can be used to draw powerful functional maps of the cell and infer potential functions for uncharacterized genes.

In a recent paper published in G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, Usaj et al. describe a web-based resource for exploring the global yeast genetic interaction network: TheCellMap.org. TheCellMap.org is an online database and visualization tool for quantitative yeast genetic interaction data. It provides an interactive version of the global yeast genetic interaction similarity network described by Costanzo et al., enabling users to scroll through and zoom in on different clusters of functionally related genes within the network. Users can search for specific genes or alleles, extract and re-organize sub-networks for genes of interest, functionally annotate genetic interactions, and more. Further, if more details about a gene are needed, users can even double-click on the gene to be taken to its respective locus summary page at SGD!

The application deadline is April 15th, so don’t miss your chance! Find all the details and application form here.

This year’s instructors – Grant Brown, Maitreya Dunham, and Elçin Ünal – have designed a course (July 25 – August 14) that provides a comprehensive education in all things yeast, from classical genetics through up-to-the-minute genomics. Students will perform and interpret experiments, learning about things like:

There’s fierce competition between students at CSHL courses in the Plate Race, a relay in which teams carry stacks of 40 Petri dishes (used, of course).

Scientists who aren’t part of large, well-known yeast labs are especially encouraged to apply – for example, professors and instructors who want to incorporate yeast into their undergraduate genetics classrooms; scientists who want to transition from mathematical, computational, or engineering disciplines into bench science; and researchers from small labs or institutions where it would otherwise be difficult to learn the fundamentals of yeast genetics and genomics. Significant stipends (in the 30-50% range of total fees) are available to individuals expressing a need for financial support and who are selected into the course.

Besides its scientific content, the fun and camaraderie at the course is also legendary. In between all the hard work there are late-night chats at the bar and swimming at the beach. There’s a fierce competition between students at the various CSHL courses in the Plate Race, which is a relay in which teams have to carry stacks of 40 Petri dishes (used, of course). There’s also a sailboat trip, a microscopy contest, and a mysterious “Dr. Evil” lab!